In current computer operating system environments, icons are provided for representing items such as files, folders, shortcuts, applications, documents, tasks, and commands. Icons may be used in list views, toolbars, dialog boxes, menus, and other places. Icons may be used to represent all objects of a specific class, such as MICROSOFT WORD™ documents, MICROSOFT EXCEL™ files, jpeg files, or other types of files.
Icons may include thumbnail images used to represent specific objects, such as a specific jpeg or a specific folder. Icons may be dynamically generated by code run on a user's machine or may be cached. Application and component developers can, using custom icons and thumbnails, convey as much information about objects as their pixels will allow. However, existing systems do not provide a technique for graphically grouping multiple icons based on properties of the files represented.
Currently, when a user wants to group items having common characteristics, the user often groups the items into a folder. For example, a user can group documents by file type to include one group for MICROSOFT WORD™ text or word processing documents, one for MICROSOFT EXCEL™ spreadsheet documents, one for MICROSOFT POWERPOINT™ presentation documents, etc. A user may also group music by genre, creating separate groups for Pop, Classical, Hip-Hop, etc. While the conventional folder structure and icon may provide easy access to the documents, the generic folder icon fails to provide descriptive information pertaining to items within the folder.